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Chilled Soul Vol. 18: Mainstream & Underground Flow

Thirty-one tracks moving between the mainstream and the underground without ever announcing which is which — the point being that by 2019 it had stopped mattering.

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Chilled Soul Vol. 18: Mainstream & Underground Flow

The framing in the title describes a real division that was in the process of collapsing. For most of the history of R&B, the gap between the radio artist and the underground one was a gap in resources: studio time, promotion, distribution. By the late 2010s all three had become cheap, and the results are audible here — a ZAYN record next to a Nigerian artist's self-released single, with no drop in production quality between them.

The sequencing is the strongest in the series. It moves between British, American and West African artists without ever flagging the transition, which is exactly how people actually listened by then.

What to listen for

Jordan Rakei's "My Time" is the most musically substantial thing here — a New Zealand-born, London-based artist who plays everything himself and writes like a jazz musician.

Barney Artist and Tom Misch's "Lullaby" is the London connection, and Misch's guitar playing is the single most identifiable sound of that scene.

Tems' "Mr Rebel" is the one to note historically. This is early — before the global success — and the voice is already entirely formed.

SiR's "Hair Down" with Kendrick Lamar is the biggest record on the list, and Kehlani's "Nights Like This" is the most played.

Dijon's "Skin" is the left-field pick and the one that most rewards following further — his later work went somewhere genuinely strange.

Blood Orange's "Good For You" with Justine Skye is the art-school entry, and Tay Iwar's "CALL U" is the Nigerian alternative-R&B deep cut.

Christian Kuria's "Bitter Pill" opens the set beautifully, and Thato Jessica and Mpho Sebina's "Masa" brings southern Africa in.

Jordin Sparks' "Chocolate Brown Eyes" with Salaam Remi is the surprise.

Go deeper

Jordan Rakei's Origin and Tom Misch's Geography are the two albums this playlist most clearly points towards.

Tems' subsequent career is worth tracing from this track forward — few artists have travelled so far so quickly from so complete a starting point.

Why the sequencing works: the set never signals which side of the old divide a track came from, and that restraint is the argument. By this point the cheap studio, the streaming platform and the bedroom producer had erased the difference in sound quality that used to separate the signed artist from the self-released one — so the only remaining question is whether the song is any good.

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